The final stretch of the election is kicking into high gear with the onset of the Republican Convention in Tampa, Florida this week. As Hurricane Isaac shuts down oil production offshore, our prayers are with the safety of industry employees and the people of the Gulf of Mexico.
Energy is an absolutely paramount issue – for IPAA member companies, but also for the American people because of the profound role oil and natural gas development will play in an economic recovery.
IPAA hopes that speakers at both conventions realize that regulations and legislation have serious unintended consequences on America’s energy sector. Independent oil and natural gas producers, who drill 95 percent of U.S. wells, employ 12 people on average. Like any small business, independent producers run the risk of being choked by an overbearing bureaucracy.
IPAA Chairman Gigi Lazenby will be at the RNC convention in Tampa this week – to ensure that energy issues stay paramount on the minds and words of Republican legislators. Last week Gigi, who has a small independent company with around 30 employees, lauded Mitt Romney’s energy plan that his campaign released last week:
“The Romney plan…incorporates the appropriate role of government in energy policy, which must be to promote energy development, rather than stifle it by overwhelming or threatening regulations and destructive legislation. For instance, the states, not bureaucrats from Washington, best know how to protect the environment while allowing for responsible American energy production. The Romney plan also recognizes the important principle of multiple-use federal land management, in which oil and natural gas development should play a prominent role.”
Gigi’s comments were picked up in the Wall Street Journal, Houston Chronicle, Washington Times, Bloomberg, and other national media outlets. Click here to read the full press release.
The speakers at the RNC and DNC conventions must give energy policy the momentous weight it deserves. The way the federal government approach America’s oil and natural gas sector will determine the economy for years to come. If policymakers embrace our nation’s vast reserves of oil and natural gas and expand access for the industry, then the American people will reap the rewards.
